Under 23s: Birmingham 1-3 Forest

1 December 2017

NFFC

Nottingham Forest Under 23s moved to the top of the Premier League Cup Group A table following an impressive 3-1 win at Birmingham City this afternoon.

A brace from Virgil Gomis and a strike from Toby Edser handed Forest all three points in Nuneaton and ensured they went top of the group ahead of Derby's meeting with Middlesbrough on Friday night (kick-off 7pm).

Forest were looking for the perfect start and they got it after only 13 minutes as Gomis reached Edser's perfectly-weighted pass and stabbed the ball beyond the goalkeeper to put The Reds in front.

Gareth Holmes's side were playing some terrific football and doubled their advantage soon after. Aaron Smith's pass ran perfectly into the path of Edser and he delicately chipped the ball past Weaver and into the back of the Birmingham net.

To their credit, the home side hit back straight away and halved the deficit. Olly McCoy shrugged off the attentions of Jordan Gabriel and produced a calm finish as he slotted the ball beyond Dimitar Evtimov in the Forest goal.

Forest weren't about to take that lying down though and soon restored their two-goal lead. Gomis got on the end of Arvin Appiah's ball inside the penalty area and slammed the ball into the back of the Birmingham net with unerring accuracy.

From there on in, it was all about game management from Forest as they defended their goal superbly to claim a vital three points in the group ahead of their trip to Middlesbrough in January.